Holy Land: 'The Stones Cry Out' report from US peace delegation

Pax Christi USA delegation

From 27 February until 3 March, a delegation including Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace, Scott Wright, and representatives from Friends of Sabeel North America, the Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace, Kairos USA, the Indiana Center for Middle East Peace and other groups, visited Palestinian religious, political, and non-governmental organisation leaders in the West Bank.

Upon returning to Washington DC on 4 March, they visited Congressional offices over the next two days and presented their findings.

The delegation of 23 American Christians, pastors and lay people produced a hard-hitting report, 'The Stones Cry Out: From the Ground in Palestine to the US Government and Churches'. It highlighted that the oppression of the Palestinian people has been ongoing for 76 years, but everything changed after 7 October 2023, the day Hamas fighters "pierced the walls of the concentration camp called Gaza". They said: "we grieve for all who have died, including the victims of the Hamas attack."

They described Gaza as "a killing field", saying "Israel's response against the Palestinian people is disproportionate." They concluded that with 85% of the people of Gaza displaced, "it is nothing less than an attempt to wipe Palestinian history, tradition, and culture from human memory, the very definition of genocide."

The delegation met with Palestinian leaders - clergy, laypeople, civil rights lawyers, and the director of UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency), and asked them to share what they would say to policy makers in Washington DC, to churches, and to communities in the US.

Palestinians consulted wanted an immediate ceasefire and the release of hostages held by Hamas and political prisoners held by Israel. The delegation called on the US to follow international law, including support for the recent International Court of Justice at The Hague ruling, declaring a "plausible case" for Israel's genocide in Gaza.

The delegation deplored that, "while our eyes are fixed on Gaza - and rightly so - there is ethnic cleansing exponentially increasing in the West Bank." They wanted a stop to illegal settlements, night raids into Palestinian homes and the trying of Palestinians arrested in military, not civil, courts. They called for an end to Israel's policy of house demolitions of Palestinian homes. The delegation wanted UNRWA funding restored immediately because "UNRWA is the only organisation that can deliver mass human services to Gaza."

The delegation deplored that the US government "is funding this crisis", saying: "This is a US war; the weapons are US made; the money is US money." They highlighted that a 25-year-old US Air Force serviceman, Aaron Bushnell, who immolated himself in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC on 25 February, was mentioned daily by Palestinians. They quoted his words: "I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I'm about to engage in an extreme act of protest, but compared to what people are experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonisers, it's not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal. Free Palestine."

Meanwhile, Pax Christi International, based in Brussels, is calling on members to demand of political leaders an immediate bi-lateral ceasefire, the release of all the hostages and those held in Israeli detention, the full restoration of UNRWA funding and an end to unrestricted arms transfers to Israel.

Religious leaders are being asked to use their unique influence in calling for justice and peace. Faith communities could organise a special Good Friday vigil or walk and join one of the many pro-Palestinian pilgrimages, walks, and rallies taking place internationally. Cities hosting such marches last weekend included London, Maastricht, Berlin and Los Angeles. The London march had a Christian Bloc and a large Jewish Bloc with banners reading, 'Jews against Gaza genocide.'

Read the full report at: https://paxchristiusa.org/2024/03/06/the-stones-cry-out-delegation-report/